Influence of Research Methodology Teaching on Developing Skills in Problem Identification among Colleges of Education Social Studies Students in Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the “influence of teaching Social Studies research methodology on student’s research skills development in colleges of education in Niger state, Nigeria”. The focus of the study is to examine the influence of teaching Social Studies research methodology on identification of sources of research problems: The study was guided by one research questions, and one hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance. This study adopts descriptive survey design. The study also reviewed related literature, one theory and equally reviewed related empirical studies and comparison were made with the current study. The target population of the study was Social Studies students in Colleges of Education in Niger State, Nigeria. A sample of 248 Social Studies students participated in the study. A researcher developed questionnaire with a reliability index of 0.860, titled “influence of Teaching Social Studies Research Methodology on Students research skills development in colleges of education in Niger state, Nigeria Questionnaire” (ITSSRMSRSDQ) was used for data collection in this study. One research assistants were employed who assisted in the distribution and retrieval of the questionnaire. The data collected for this study was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The descriptive statistics include frequencies and percentage for bio-data, while mean standard deviation was used to answer the research questions, and as well, the hypotheses were tested using one sample t-test. This study found that teaching Social Studies research methodology has influence on development of skills of Sources of research problem identification; the hypotheses were retained. The study concluded that teaching Social Studies research methodology has influence on development of skills of sources of research problem identification; the study recommended that, Colleges of Education should also organize regular workshops and seminars to strengthen students’ abilities to recognize and define educational and social problems.